The Melodious Dawn Chorus Daily

One of the amazing things about birds and animals, is vocal group communications, whether that’s the Dawn Chorus, Twighlight Barking, or the alarm tones that signal mass evacuations.

And time-based activities aren’t always vocal. Some years ago we sat on a beach watching the sun go down and found ourselves sitting near a mob of kangaroos, ears twitching, quietly watching the sun go down.

One of the things I absolutely adored about The 101 Dalmations, was Twilight Barking. (City dogs passing on the day’s news by barking and howling in the late afternoon or early evening. It’s less common in less urbanised areas).

And when I lived a couple of streets away from the Zoo, the Twilight Howl was deafening! Those baboons can get a real hoot going on.

Here in the outer suburbs that were once commuter belt towns, we have the Dawn Chorus where it seems like every bird on the planet is greeting the day.

And sometimes in the evening or middle of the night too.

Australian birds often call to mark their territories, so you can hear the Dawn Chorus approaching in a wave of sound that passes over the top of you and keeps on going.

And sometimes, birds that share similar habits and food preferences in the same area (like kookaburras and magpies or different kinds of parrots) draw their boundaries around you as well.

And now that Pretty Girl has got in the habit of performing her morning ablutions a little earlier than I’d prefer, I’m often up in time to hear it. Or sometimes before it even starts.

It’s an amazing thing I miss when I’m away from home, and when I get back it feels like they’re welcoming me home.

Haiku Dawn Chorus
Kookaburra in a gum tree in my garden, 14 July 2019. Photo by Andrew Hopkins.

You can see more of my Haiku here.


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